


The Honour Guard

by Howling_Harpy



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Cockblocking, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Meddling, POV Outsider, Summer, Summer Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23627833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howling_Harpy/pseuds/Howling_Harpy
Summary: Luz is so worried about Speirs spending too much time with Lipton that he recruits a group of buddies to watch out for their friend. It might not be such a good idea, though.
Relationships: Carwood Lipton/Ronald Speirs
Comments: 16
Kudos: 65





	The Honour Guard

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah this is just some silliness I wanted to bring to this fandom and into my life. I just like the idea that Speirs and Lipton are such an unlikely match that it envokes worry in Lipton's friends.
> 
> *
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on the HBO's drama series and the actors' portrayals in it. This has nothing to do with any real person represented in the series and means no disrespect.

“I’m just worried for the man, is all,” Luz said defensively as he dealt another round of cards on the chair they were using as a table. 

“Uh-huh,” Talbert said, indifferent and unwilling to argue. He picked up his cards and his face fell when he saw them, but Luz was too busy with his own monologue to notice.

“I mean – It’s not like there’s that much work to actually do anymore. Just look at what we’re doing!” He gestured wildly around the gymnasium of the local school, now turned into a giant weapon’s vault, stacked full of various firearms stripped from the surrendering German troops. 

Luz and Talbert were sitting by the only entrance to the gymnasium and playing cards, and only one of them was really required to be there. Luz turned back to their game. “So what the hell is keeping Lip so busy, huh?” 

“Couldn’t tell ya, buddy,” Talbert said, thumbing his obviously lousy cards while trying to decide on his next move.

Not that Luz needed his input to keep going: “I’m telling you, it isn’t fair! He’s worked probably harder than anyone of us and the war is over! He should be relaxing, seeing the sights, having some fun, or at least getting something proper to eat and some sleep.” 

“Well, he is the company’s XO now, at least unofficially,” Talbert noted. “Speirs is keeping busy and so is Lip, and who knows what the officers are doing anyway. Maybe they have more to do than us.”

“Yeah, maybe… But what?” Luz pondered. Wrecking his brain made him fidget with anxiety and he tried to ease the feeling by lighting a cigarette. “I mean, all I have to do is guard the guns for two hours and mind the radio for another two in the afternoon, that’s it. You’re the First Sergeant and still you’re here with me!” 

“Well…” Talbert drawled without a care, “There’s just not that much to do. I keep count of the men and inventory, it’s not that much work to do.”

“Exactly! How much work can Speirs give Lip, then?”

Talbert just shrugged. “Again, officers… You can never know with them.”

Something bothered Luz about it. He had a thought, a theory he was all too eager to share and so he pursued it. “All we have now is rotating guard duty, some exercising and counts. It is impossible for those to take so much of Lip’s time, and still whenever I see him, he’s running after Speirs for this or that. I’m telling you, there’s more to that than it seems!”

Talbert barely took interest, but he did lift his gaze, huff and entertain the thought. “Running after him… Like how?”

Luz had an answer ready: “Every time I go look for Lip, he’s either with Speirs or going to see him, and when I ask, it’s always about some business. But that can’t be, because I’ve seen Speirs looting and sending mail home, and he spends time at the officers’ club. There’s no work, yet he still makes Lip dance to his tune. I’m telling you, it’s not right and it’s not fair!”

Talbert looked interested but didn’t seem to grasp just what he should say about it. He lit a cigarette as well to bide his time. “Lip can take care of himself. If he has work to do, then he has work to do.”

“And you’re not at all worried that Speirs is… I don’t know… Doing something?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, it’s Speirs! He might be just putting extra work on Lip, or he might be planning something!”

“Like what?” Talbert insisted again.

Luz didn’t quite get to that when the next shift’s guard came to relieve him, and they gathered up their stuff, passed the information about the storage (nothing new) to them, and started heading back to Easy’s billets. 

But Luz wouldn’t let the subject go. “I know Lip can look after himself, but… He’s just a good guy, alright? Like, really good. Proper. Decent, if you know what I mean.”

Talbert barked a laugh. “Oh yeah, I know. Mr. Married Man and all that, I know. What about it?”

“Well there are these stories about Speirs, and it just might be that it hasn’t occurred to Lip how he should be looking after himself,” Luz said, lowering his voice at the mention of the stories even though traffic on the road was slow and no one could have possibly overheard them, let alone gone and tattle to Speirs.

Talbert laughed again, this time with dirty mirth. “Yep, I know those stories about Speirs. I think I’ve started a few, actually. Bloody Speirs and his unusual pastimes and appetites, yeah, I know. I think there was even an actual claim of an eyewitness about him and some guy from his platoon in Dog favouring detours after guard duty. Or was it a trip to Paris even…. I can’t remember which… Or both…” 

“You see! And now Speirs is doing his everything to have Lip with him, on all hours and especially really late,” Luz explained with frustration at Talbert’s snickering. 

“Oh come on, Speirs doesn’t want Lip like that,” Talbert scoffed, “those are just rumours. Silly stories that we tell to shock little virgin boys in our ranks – which by the way makes me wonder how you’ve heard of them.”

It was that moment when Perconte chose to catch up with them. “Who’s a virgin?” he asked. 

“Luz,” Talbert answered before Luz had the chance to protest. 

“Hey!”

“I knew it!” Perconte cheered and looked like he would have pumped a fist in the air had he not been carrying a load of cans and packages in his arms.

“No, I am not,” Luz argued overtly patiently, “and neither is Lip gonna remain his pure self if we don’t help him shake Speirs lose.”

Talbert huffed and rolled his eyes, clearly tiring of the subject. “I’m telling you again, Lip’s decency is not under threat, and Speirs isn’t really like that.”

“Like what?” Perconte interjected, and unlike Talbert clearly sensing good gossip and enjoying it. “You mean, like _that_? Like you know, _that_? Because he is, he definitely is.”

“What? No, he isn’t,” Talbert insisted, but there was a new spark of interest in his tone. 

“Oh, yes he is,” Perconte heavily assured with a grin and a snicker. “But what’s that got to do with Lipton?”

Luz puffed and threw an accusing glare at Talbert. “How come you suddenly believe it now that Frank says it?” he demanded, but didn’t wait for an answer from the grinning, shrugging Talbert but started his theory over to Perconte: “I’ve been trying to tell you, Lip’s been spending awful lot of time running for Speirs’ errands lately even though there’s no work to be done…” 

Perconte seemed more interested in his theory from the get-go, and something about it made Talbert listen too, although he was distracted by every pretty girl on their way back and smiled and greeted them without paying any mind to what Luz was currently saying. It was a beautiful, bright summer day, but good gossip was making it better. 

Unfortunately, Luz had a feeling that only he was seriously invested in said gossip as a problem that needed intervention. When they got back to the giant beautiful manor Easy was currently housed, Luz was still lecturing the two others about his various observations. 

“ – And then there are the really long lunches, and that time when Speirs took Lipton with him to loot, and everyone knows Lip doesn’t do that!” 

They circled the building and headed to the surprisingly tended to garden behind it, finding a comfortable spot in the sun.

“Yeah yeah, they spend a lot of time together,” Talbert said when he grew tired of the stories. “But I just still don’t see that about Speirs.”

Perconte laughed. He dropped the armful of things on the grass and started to sort through them. “Why not?”

Talbert threw himself on the grass and stretched out in the sun. “I just don’t, okay? It’s funny to warn jumpy replacements not to turn their backs to him, but come on. Janovec told me Speirs walked in on him fraternizing with a local dame a while ago, and like a model soldier that he is he jumped to attention for the captain, and Speirs didn’t even look him over, just wanted his silver.” 

Luz couldn’t help but laugh at the story, but also didn’t see how it would poke a hole in his theory: “Hah, of course not! A skinny thing like Janovec, hello? I have evidence that Speirs goes after Lipton, so obviously guys like _that_ are his type.”

Perconte wiggled his brows at Luz. “’Guys like that’,” he repeated, “like what? You paying attention or something?” 

Luz made a face. “Oh come on, Frank, even you have eyes, and you could use those eyes to detect the extremely obvious difference between Janovec and Lipton.”

Perconte laughed again and shrugged, turning back to his haul and sorting cans of sweetened milk, a flour bag and some sort of canned fruits and marmalades in front of him and didn’t make a further comment.

“Okay, so say Speirs is a bit bent,” Talbert acknowledged, and even though he clearly didn’t buy this whole thing yet, there was a hint of seriousness in his voice. “That doesn’t suddenly change everything that we know about him, and I seriously can’t see that guy shitting where he eats.”

Eager to argue, Luz pointed a finger at him. “Lip’s his fellow officer now, and he will get transferred soon. There’s nothing stopping him.”

Talbert didn’t look happy about this point and wrinkled his nose in annoyance. “How about going after a married man, then? That’s just setting himself up for a failure.”

Luz kept his finger pointed at Talbert, now wiggling it at him with a triumphant smile on his face. “Lip’s stopped wearing his ring.”

“Wow, he has?” Talbert asked and sprang to sit up.

Luz grimaced in sympathy even in his triumph. “Yeah, sorry to point that out. It was in February when the mail caught up with us. He hasn’t said anything, but I think it’s obvious what has happened.”

Talbert looked at loss of words for a moment, then combed his fingers through his already tussled hair and laid back down on the grass. “Well fuck,” he said to no one in particular. 

“I never noticed the ring. I wonder what he’s done with that,” Perconte thought out loud as he finished sorting his haul according to some plan of his. “Right,” he announced, “someone get me a frying pan somewhere and we’ll get pancakes.” 

“Who’s making pancakes? And what ring?” 

Shifty had sneaked up on them in that accidental manner of his with his soft steps and quiet demeanour. His sudden appearance made all three of them minorly startle, and Shifty smiled self-consciously as he sat down. 

“Perco is making pancakes for us,” Luz answered quickly. 

“Oh, that’s nice!” Shifty said with a soft smile that made any objection that Perconte might have had to sharing wilt before he could even properly consider them. “But whose ring were you talking about?” 

“Lip’s wedding ring, the one he doesn’t wear anymore,” Talbert answered, “Luz has this whole thing…” He gestured vaguely at Luz but seemed to decide mid-sentence that his theory wasn’t worth voicing, so he let it dwindle to silence and just huffed.

Shifty tilted his head and frowned, looking genuinely upset about the news, and when Talbert didn’t continue, he turned his sad eyes to Luz in search of answers. “What thing?”

Luz took a deep breath and once again launched on a detailed explanation of the Speirs-Lipton situation and all his observations regarding it. By the time he was done, Shifty’s sadness had gained a clearly worried undertone.

“But… But we’ll have to help him, don’t we?” he said while looking at each man present. 

“Yes! Thank you! That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say!” Luz exclaimed. “Finally, someone who’s a true friend to Lip.” 

“I’m Lip’s friend,” Talbert argued, clearly annoyed by the implied exclusion. 

“Then defend his honour – or at least his free time and innocence – a bit,” Luz fired back. Shifty nodded along his words with a concerned look on his face while hugging his rifle. 

“Ugh, fine,” Talbert agreed and rolled his eyes, even though the idiocy he was looking down on now included himself. 

The trouble was the fact that Lipton had been promoted, and him being an officer was both what put him in the line of fire and out of the reach of his friends. Lipton might have still been officially with the Easy company, but, just as Luz had spent the better part of the morning outlaying for them, nowadays spent almost all of his time in the battalion headquarters – or wherever Captain Speirs happened to want him along. 

“Okay, but this should be easy,” Shifty quipped, “Luz, you’re Battalion HQ, so you can keep an eye on him there.”

“I’ve been doing that for almost two weeks,” Luz said. “It’s a good idea in theory, sure, but all I can do is man the radio or distribute rations. Do you think Speirs is gonna put his paws on our Lieutenant in front of everyone?”

Shifty hunched his shoulders and looked uncomfortable, patches of red appearing on his cheeks. He hugged his rifle tighter as if it could ease the awkwardness of the improper topic. He shrugged with little resolve. “Then don’t let them get alone no more,” he suggested softly. 

Luz huffed. “Yeah, that’s easier said than done!”

“Actually,” Talbert interjected, now completely serious although still lounging in the sun like an oversized housecat, “I could actually keep our CO busy. It is the First Sergeant who has the most business with him anyway, and the more trouble the men bring to me, the more of it I have to offer the CO.” 

Luz frowned. “I thought you said you’re doing all the work you have already.”

“Eh, the minimum amount, at least.” 

Together they came to the conclusion that the situation was indeed a dire one, and the plan to do something about it was put to use immediately. It was helped by the fact that there was really nothing else for them to do during these long, warm, sunny days of early summer, but also by noting that the warm weather and endless leisure might have brought about other things in some people. 

Perconte still needed a frying pan to make his pancakes, which was a problem that the vast kitchen at the hotel Kaprun would solve, so the group of four took to the headquarters together planning to both make sweet snacks and man their defensive positions. 

Luz took his place by the radio at the hotel’s reception desk that was a handy place for such an equipment. Shifty stayed with him for company while Perconte and Talbert went to ransack the kitchen. Luz had already snooped through every interesting nook of the giant building and knew the pantries plucked clean and all the treasures of the rooms long gone, so rummaging through drawers felt little appeal to him. 

Manning the radio was easy. Luz just listened to the incoming messages that were all testing messages when each outpost on their frequency changed guard shifts, and manning the equipment didn’t take much thought. Luz and Shifty started a friendly game of cards even though Shifty never played for money, and together they passed the time in the grand marble-floored lobby, waiting for the pancakes.

What came first however was Lipton, wandering in from the direction of the hotel bar carrying a coffee tray and heading towards the stairs. 

Luz plugged the cigarette from his lips at the sight of their friend. “Hey there, Lieutenant!” he called out a greeting. “What are you doing there, Lip?”

For some reason, Lipton seemed embarrassed by being spotted by close friends. He flushed with awkwardness and tried to angle the silver tray away from the counter with poor results as it wasn’t a small one and carried a considerable load of things. “Oh, hi there, boys. I didn’t realize it was your shift.”

Luz tilted his head and took a drag from his cigarette. “Same as yesterday, buddy,” he said. “But what do you got there?”

Lipton clearly had hoped he wouldn’t ask a second time and glanced down at a fully set coffee tray. “Just taking some coffee upstairs, nothing much,” he explained, shuffling on his feet like he wanted to dart for the stairs. “For Captain Speirs,” he added. 

Luz and Shifty exchanged a quick look, then turned back to Lipton and his tray. It was an oval silver tray with little paws carrying a small coffee pot and two cups, a small porcelain creamer, a little bowl of sugared marmalade sweet and a very thin bottle of cognac. The whole setup looked like something a lazy officer might order from an orderly or a secretary. 

Luz had trouble forming his thoughts into words that could be spoken out loud, but Shifty was already moving. He swung his rifle on his back and approached Lipton with a kind smile.

“That looks heavy, sir. Please let me help you with some of that,” he said, nodding towards the tray.

Lipton was taken aback while trying to inch his way to the stairs and hugging the tray close. “I – Um, that’s not necessary, Shifty, but thanks.”

“No, no, don’t worry about it, I’ll help,” Shifty quickly rebutted.

“It’s fine, really – “

“Don’t worry about it! Please, let me help. It’s no trouble.”

Whatever resolve Lipton had, it didn’t hold up in front of Shifty’s stern Southern kindness and smile. He didn’t manage to escape up the stairs before Shifty got to him, promptly picked up the bottle and the sweets from the tray and headed up the stairs as if the chore had been his in the first place. 

Luz watched as Lipton surrendered to his fate and started climbing after Shifty, the pair disappearing up the stairs. He had to admit that he was impressed by Shifty’s quick thinking but wondered how he’d handle actually getting up to wherever Speirs was currently keeping office. Or had Lipton been ordered to take the coffee and cognac to his room? 

Luz was brimming with questions, but Shifty took his time before coming down. Talbert and Perconte were finished with the pancakes and brought a stack of them and four plates to the counter before Shifty got back, and Luz got to explain the whole deal to them. 

They were helping themselves to seconds when Shifty skipped down the stairs and joined them.

“Well?” all three asked in unison.

Shifty shrugged and wrung his hands, then grabbed himself a pancake. He took a big bite out of the treat, chewed and swallowed before speaking into the expectant silence: “The situation is more dire than we thought.”

“How come?” Talbert demanded right away. 

“Well, first of all, that wasn’t just coffee, it was drinks and sweets. Sweets that Lip didn’t come by accident either, because I asked,” Shifty started in a quiet but frantic voice. “And secondly, I didn’t take that to any office, but all the way to the fourth floor where the officers bunk.”

“Well damn,” Perconte chuckled. “And how did you keep Lip from turning his back to Speirs?” 

Shifty flushed at the wording and bit his lower lip, but valiantly kept to the point: “I didn’t leave them alone right away. I stuck around to talk to Lip about supply trouble and ammo for my rifle since I’m hunting for food for the company, and since Captain Speirs kinda ordered me to do that, he took responsibility.”

“Right, I forgot he ordered you on those hunting trips! ” Luz said, clapping his hands together. “But took responsibility, how?”

“He promised to see that I’m given extra ammo and went to the supply office to see to it,” Shifty told them, clearly pleased, “he made himself a cup of coffee and left the room. He said he was too busy for a coffee break anyway.”

“Good job, Shifty!” Talbert praised with a grin and slapped him on the arm. 

“Danger averted,” Perconte concluded. 

Luz nodded along with a self-satisfied smile, not only happy about the success of pulling Lipton safely out of secretary roleplay for now, but for gaining allies on his mission to do so in the future too. “You see? My theory has been proven! But this was just this one afternoon, and we all know our Captain to be very persistent. These situations will come up again, and we got to keep having Lip’s back!”

“Have Lip’s back, for what?” asked once again a new voice. 

The four of them were hunched over the counter with their heads together and jumped a bit at being suddenly eavesdropped on, and turned around to see Liebgott and Grant about to cross the lobby from the bar to the double doors out to the front porch, both carrying scrubby boxes of suspicious supplies. Or they had been, before catching on the interesting bit of gossip Luz was laying out.

Luz took a deep breath and started once again explaining: “I have this theory that Lieutenant Lipton is in acute danger of being seduced by our CO, because – “ 

Liebgott interrupted him with a stark shake of his head. “Please don’t get me involved in that.” 

Grant made a grimacing face while clearly agreeing, and the pair was on their way before anyone could get a chance to try and convince them otherwise.

Luz snapped his jaw shut as they disappeared out into the summer day with whatever haul they had managed to get their hands on. He scoffed. “So much for the care for your fellow man!”

Talbert snickered and shook his head. “Oh, so now you _want_ the fellows to care for each other? I thought that was the problem.”

“Gross, Floyd,” Luz said without bothering to even look at him and took his third pancake. 

Whatever humour there had been to the situation faded very quickly along the week when they realized how difficult it indeed was to keep Speirs’s claws off Lipton, whose rank and position demanded his presence near the CO more often than not. They didn’t have much duties aside from regular exercise and rifle ranges plus the guard duty, and at first one might have thought that with so much time it would have been easy for an enlisted man to keep an eye on a couple of officers who had more work to do, but there they ran into another problem. The city of Kaprun was just big enough to make getting lost in it easy, and the warm summer days with free time for all meant lots of people – both soldiers and civilians – constantly swarming everywhere. 

Luz kept worrying about Lipton, whom he didn’t get the chance to see that often even though he often had business at the headquarters. It almost seemed that the harder Luz tried to pry Lipton from his unfair extra workload and under the scarily sparkling eyes of their CO, the more the fresh Lieutenant seemed to cling to his duties. The only saving grace was that if Lipton kept busy, Speirs was even more so and thus the opportunities for him to harass the Lieutenant stayed scarce. 

It also seemed that Speirs’ buddies among the officers, the ones who didn’t really know Lipton, were unknowingly providing protection by showing up to spend their free time with Speirs. Around noon on several days, Luz sat by the headquarters’ radio and watched a group of officers take Speirs with them along to the officers’ club, or the beach or wherever they fancied to go that night, and Lipton was never with them.

Recruiting Talbert on his mission turned out to be a great decision. He took to his job as the First Sergeant and took every single opportunity to bring up this or that complaint, or overwork a report, or complicate just about any form or paper that needed to be sent up the chain of command. He pestered Captain Speirs so much that often at the end of the day Speirs sent him away almost angrily and then retreated to the officers’ club. Lipton eventually followed him there, but there they could trust the presence of the other officers to keep things decent. They all collectively agreed that Nixon and Welsh might not have reined Speirs in no matter what he tried to pull, but under Major Winters’ watchful eye even Speirs wouldn’t try to do anything weird with a man of Easy company. 

But even Talbert was losing some of his strong will and constant cheer. Late on one Sunday evening he finally made his way to the house they were staying at, interrupted a good round of poker among the guys to take Luz to the side in another room, and threw himself on one of the fancy couches and crossed his arms.

“I don’t think I can do this much longer, buddy,” he grumbled with a sour look on his face.

“What?!” Luz exclaimed, then caught himself and after glancing around them for one anxious moment sat down next to Talbert and continued in a lower voice. “What do you mean? We’re doing this for Lip, and you never leave a buddy behind!”

“I know!” Talbert snapped back and sank deeper into the couch cushions. “It’s just, this awkwardness it starting to get to me. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to barge in on two officers having a smoke and then just casually invite yourself to the party, then talk meaningless shit until they both grow tired of you and escape to the officers’ club?”

“I can imagine,” Luz said drily, thinking back to those chilling moments in Haguenau after Lipton had gotten better and Luz had tried to catch moments alone with him, only to have Speirs shamelessly interrupt them to offer Lipton those death omens also known as cigarettes and then sticking around to watch him smoking them. There was something disturbing about the intensity of the man’s stare, even though Lipton had just smiled kindly back at him. 

“Well I know,” Talbert said, yanking Luz back to the moment. “I nearly didn’t even see them in the western gateway near the orchards. Wouldn’t have, if Lip hadn’t lit Speirs’ cigarette for him when I was going by.” He narrowed his eyes at Luz like the whole thing was somehow his fault. “I had to cross the whole yard to interrupt that.”

Luz shrugged. “Yeah? And?”

“How about you try talking about rationing potatoes after seeing your buddy getting his own cigarette lit from the tip of your CO’s, all the while pretending you didn’t see his hand on the back of his neck,” Talbert grumbled at him and groaned as he tipped over on the couch and promptly hit the back of his head on the carved wooden armrest. 

While he whined and rubbed the back of his head, Luz tried to understand what exactly his problem was, narrow antique furniture not counting. “Okay, so you saw stuff and talked bullshit about potatoes no one wants. But we’re doing this for Lip’s sake!”

Talbert let out a heavy sigh and crossed his arms behind his head while throwing a tired look at Luz. “That’s what I’m saying. Maybe we should just back off.”

Luz couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What?! After what you just saw?!”

“Yeah, exactly because of that,” Talbert said, but his tone was just sarcastic enough to leave it unclear if he really meant it. “Lip’s a big boy. He can look out for himself.”

It was Luz’s turn to cross his arms. “I’m not claiming that he can’t, he’s just far too decent.”

“Well…” Talbert said in a thoughtful drawl. “I wonder if any one of us is as decent as we used to be.”

Luz didn’t want to go down that road, so he left Talbert to his tragic thoughts and went back to the poker table, where he promptly lost his two week’s pay.

Shifty really wanted to help, but as a simple Sergeant he couldn’t come up with an endless list of things to bring up to the officers, so he was stuck on recon, which was proving to be a challenge for him in how embarrassing it was. 

After one very long, very slow and unusually warm day mid-May, Shifty all but stormed into the upstairs lounge of the manor they were billeted in and went straight to the narrow balcony. Judging by his demeanour one would have expected him to slam the door shut behind him, but he was too well-raised for behaviour like that, so he closed the door without making a single delicate window panel even jingle, and went to sulk by himself near the railing.

Luz wanted his daily report on activity on hostile ground, and since Shifty didn’t look like he was going to come in any time soon, he decided to go to him. 

The day had been perfectly clear and almost hot, but now that the night had fallen it had turned cool. It was dark already and the lake Zell glimmered in the light of the stars instead of the sun, but it looked like every house in Kaprun had lights on, and warm yellow squares all around them spotted the darkness. The brisk mountain breeze didn’t bother either one of them, so Luz lit a cigarette without a hurry while Shifty simply leaned on the white wooden railing of the balcony and stared into the distant woods and the mountains.

“So,” Luz started while blowing out the smoke from his first pull off the cigarette, “how did it go today?”

Shifty pursed his lips and didn’t say anything for a while, but then shrugged half-heartedly. “It went okay,” he said hesitantly, like it wasn’t quite true but there was nothing better to say either. “And I think Lip won’t need me to keep an eye on him no more either.”

“What? How come?”

“There ain’t nothing for me to see, is all.”

“Shifty, we both know there’s more than enough to see there.”

“Yeah, exactly!”

Luz didn’t understand, not the words or the heavy meaning in Shifty’s eyes he was clearly trying to get across. “So what did you see?”

Shifty shrugged again and turned back towards the mountains, his hip leaning against the railing. “That’s just it, nothing. I know they spent the day together while working. They went to breakfast together, worked separated with Speirs at the HQ and Lipton supervising the rifle range, and then they had lunch together in the orchards behind the Kaprun hotel. Then Major Winters’ runner found Lipton for some business and Captain Speirs went back to his office, and that’s all I know.”

Luz listened to Shifty’s story carefully while keeping a sharp eye on him, wondering when the part that had made that bright blush rise to his cheeks would come, but no such things were brought up before Shifty fell silent again. 

Luz raised his brows. “And… What?” he asked, his cigarette bouncing up and down between his lips.

Shifty threw him a scolding look. “And nothing, that’s all. I just really think we ought to let them be.”

Luz’s frowned. “Why on earth would we do that?”

“Well…” Shifty said, his voice a soft lilt and his head curiously tilted. “They are obviously comfortable with each other. You can’t say that Lieutenant Lipton is exactly forced to do anything he don’t wanna do.” 

Luz’s frown deepened and he clicked his tongue. “Shifty… You’ve seen him. He’s running according to his every whim, carrying coffee trays and spending even his off-duty hours in the Captain’s office or in his room. You can’t say that’s not nothing!”

“It’s not nothing,” Shifty agreed easily but his gaze turned to the mountains again. “But it’s no hazing either.”

“Yeah, no shit. I’ve been saying it’s a different kind of bad attention,” Luz noted while chewing the filter of his cigarette. “You do get what I’m telling you, right?”

“Oh, I do, I do get it alright,” Shifty hurried to say. He fidgeted on his place, swayed on his heels and looked like he was wrestling with thoughts he didn’t know if he should voice or not. “But I gotta say, I’ve never seen Captain Speirs so comfortable with anybody else, not so much that he takes his jacket and shirt off while on duty. And I’m sorry, but I gotta say that Lieutenant Lipton didn’t look too happy about being fetched away from the orchard either.”

Shifty gave him another of those curious meaningful looks, but still Luz didn’t know what to make of it. “What are you saying?” he asked. His cigarette had burned all the way down to the filter and he flicked it off the balcony.

Shifty’s eyes followed the still glowing butt fly and land somewhere down on the street. “I’m saying that sometimes you should let two guys do their paperwork together if that’s how they wanna do it and not bother them about it.” 

Luz stared at the other in disbelief. “So you don’t care, is that it?”

Shifty gave him a twitch of a smile and shrugged. “Nah, but it ain’t my business either.” And with that, he turned and went back inside, leaving Luz alone on the balcony to try and fully understand what Shifty had only implied.

It had been only a few weeks and Luz found his allies giving up on the mission, and he knew that he couldn’t endlessly trust Major Winters to keep Speirs under control either. Summer was rolling about with thunderous joy and the increasing heat, greenery and long days energized everyone. Days stretched long with the sun shining high and the nature all around blooming into its full fresh green glory, and with the seemingly never-ending flow of alcohol from their storages and the many delights of Kaprun, it felt like a soldier’s paradise. There were always card games, little house parties, games of baseball, basketball, football, volleyball and just about any other sport around, and wandering groups of merry people, soldiers mixing with the young locals easily, who accepted any and all company. 

The lakeside was a real draw as well, and even though the water of lake Zell was still chilly, its shores were perfect for playing games, setting up picnics and sunning, and some days were so hot that some braver, tougher men enjoyed themselves a swim. 

Major Winters proved once again to be an exceptionally resourceful and thoughtful officer by coming up with the idea of utilizing the ski lodges up the mountains for the benefit of the soldiers. Either that, or maybe the command wanted less men to deal with on weekends, because they organized all the men of the battalion for weekend trips up the mountains, one company at the time.

At first when Easy’s turn came and they started the hike up the mountains early on Friday morning, Luz was feeling really good about it. He was looking forward to the change of pace and a relaxing weekend just as much as anybody, but also getting far away from the many nooks and alleys of Kaprun made a heavy burden of worry lift from his shoulders. 

Speirs led the company with Lipton close behind when they climbed the mountain slope, and from the middle of the marching formation Luz threw them a few content glances. There was no way anything dangerous could happen over the weekend, not with the limited space of the lodges and the entire company present. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Perconte said when Luz spoke his thought aloud. “Officers still get their own rooms.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Luz scoffed. “A lodge is a lot smaller than the hotel they stay at, there’s no way they can sneak off or hide there.”

Perconte clicked his tongue. “Doesn’t have to be inside either,” he pointed out in a suspiciously amused tone for such a serious topic. Luz had a sinking feeling that he was losing his last ally, who may have been in on it just for the show anyway. 

“What are you talking about?”

“Just look around you,” Perconte said like it was obvious. “It’s sunny, it’s warm, everything around is green and beautiful – who wouldn’t want to fool around on some green grass and wildflowers?” 

And Luz looked and considered that. They had successfully driven Speirs out of whatever hidey holes he had tried to corner Lipton in by throwing doors open and shedding light in dark rooms, lingering in hallways with someone’s foot in a doorway and guiding runners to wrong offices. They had hung about in every even slightly shadowy gateway and balcony, and eventually herded the officers into the decent company of other officers. 

Every indoor space and most of the outdoors had been occupied, and now that Luz looked about he saw the wilderness around changing into nothing more but an entirely new and terrifyingly vast field of indecent opportunities. 

“Oh no,” he mumbled under his breath. 

Still, all things considered, it was the best weekend that anyone in Easy could remember. The place up on the mountain slope was like a little hideaway for them with a couple of huge lodges and a total free range of the surrounding nature without a soul in sight, and all that with a breath-taking view of the glimmering lake and the nearby towns far below. 

It felt like they had climbed closer to the sun too, as it shone on them bright and hot so far up. 

Mostly the men spent their time together, and Luz was relieved to note that neither Lipton nor Speirs wanted to wander off with the small hunting parties but preferred to stay with the rest of the officers. 

Saturday afternoon was warm and stretched long with a baseball game where no one bothered to really keep serious score or call the matches. The place up the mountain with only them and no high-ranking officers or curious civilians felt like a place with its own rules, which led to the officers mixing with the enlisted men and joining the game.

Luz and Perconte were waiting their turn in the line of nervous other batters, all anticipating their turn to go against Captain Speirs’ pitches. 

Really, Luz thought to himself, he should have tried to recruit Moore on his mission, as he seemed to be the only one who dared to run his mouth at Speirs and was once again the reason why the captain was on the field with them, furiously pitching and trying his hardest to get every single runner. 

As scarily competitive as their CO was, he was also more human than Luz could ever remember seeing him. Under the summer sun and the heat of the sport, Speirs had shed his jacket, shirt and cap, leaving him on his white sleeveless undershirt and trousers held up by suspenders, a look so casual one couldn’t imagine him even considering it anywhere else except under these special circumstances. And yet, Luz noted curiously as he watched Speirs throwing the ball past Heffron’s best swing, he wasn’t at all pale, but his arms and chest were the colour of warm bronze that only spending time in the sun would give you. Despite this Luz just couldn’t imagine Speirs sunning himself on the beach or even enjoying a morning cigarette shirtless on his balcony, but something about the revelation about his humanity made him seem less intimidating and less like an obscure threat on the horizon he had been for the past month.

Having their CO here and caught up in a seemingly endless baseball game also meant he was supervised by the entire company, and for the first time since taking on the task of protecting Lipton Luz could let himself relax. 

That heavenly feeling of no worries lasted almost for a half an hour and ended abruptly in Perconte nudging him with his elbow.

“Ow, Jesus, Frank, what?” 

“Look who it is,” Perconte chuckled with a drip of devilish joy in his voice.

“What?” Luz asked and looked for the intended focus of attention on the field. Previous runner hadn’t made it home and neither had the batter made it to first base, but when Luz turned his eyes to the middle of the field expecting to see a gloating pitcher, he saw instead Liebgott fitting the glove on and waving to his teammates. 

It took Luz several stressful moments to locate Speirs, who hadn’t moved onto any other place on the field but had removed himself from the game altogether. Finally he saw him on the opposite edge of the field, being offered a canteen by Lipton, who likewise had shed his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt in the heat. 

Speirs accepted the canteen, lifted it to his lips and seemed to down the entire thing in one go while Lipton watched him, smiling. 

They left together, languidly making their way away from both the field and the lodges, instead heading towards the trails and the patches of forest, and no one payed them a second glance when they left.

Luz panicked. He was on the move before anyone around him noticed or Perconte had a chance to say anything more, but as he was hastily making his way towards the place where the two officers had now disappeared, he could hear Perconte calling after him and telling him to come back.

It wasn’t hard to guess where Speirs had taken Lipton as there weren’t that many places to go. The road towards the lodges was empty, and so that left only the path going the other way, a slithering trail away from the open fields, the slope and the buildings and disappearing among the trees. 

The mountain forest didn’t grow tall but it was thick, full of bushes and moss and little patches of plants here and there. They were still low enough to have leafy trees about, but they seemed to be growing rather horizontally than vertically, spreading their branches in every direction and casting deep green shadows when sun shone through their leaves. 

Luz walked forward along the trail without seeing anyone and just kept going while glancing in every direction. He was just about ready to give up and admit defeat when he heard leaves rustling from the right side off the trail just out of sight, and finally he heard voices:

“ – in such a hurry.”

“Maybe so. Now shut it and come on.”

“So bossy.”

Thick foliage kept the voices muffled, and Luz could tell they were a good way off the trail as well, but he recognized Speirs’ taunting voice and Lipton leading him forward. Luz followed the voices through a thick bush and found himself on a gentle sloping with grass and tiny blue flowers under his feet.

The voices were closer, coming from behind tall hazel bushes, and Luz slowed his steps down when he neared them.

“No one saw us, right? No one’s following?” Lipton asked somewhat impatiently.

“I don’t think so. Everyone’s either playing or napping, it’s just us,” Speirs answered so surely that he must have believed it.

“Finally. _Finally_ …”

There was some rustling like they had pushed their way through a bush. Somewhere nearby there was a small stream, its burbling sound unmistakable. 

“So impatient too,” Speirs said in a low voice and hummed a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah sure. Sure, whatever, just come here…” There was impatience to Lipton’s tone, something that made his voice sound entirely foreign. All the rustling stopped suddenly and the voices didn’t move further anymore. There was a pause in the conversation, and then Lipton’s restless voice asked in an urgent rush: “You want it too, right? It’s not just… It’s not just me?”

All amusement was gone from Speirs’ voice that was suddenly serious and heated in an uncanny way. “Yeah, I want you too.”

Luz felt like the world had suddenly tilted on its axis and he found himself looking at the situation upside down. What had been so unimaginable and foreign in their billets and in uniform among other soldiers was suddenly obvious here in the green little paradise under a summer sun, and suddenly Luz understood what Talbert had meant about interrupting a moment with useless blabber about potatoes. This was definitely something he didn’t want to walk in on, and there was a gnawing feeling in the back of his mind telling him that it was too late already anyway. Luz felt his heart hammering painfully in his chest when he tried to both understand and not imagine the scene probably just a few yards away from him, hidden behind a curtain of hazel and alpine roses by a stream. 

With his earlier panic in a new form Luz was quickly coming to a conclusion that he shouldn’t have been there, especially now that the conversation had died down and was starting to turn into other kinds of sounds, and so he turned to leave. He started back up the hill he had come from and avoiding the smooth grass he set his foot on a rock jutting out of the ground, only to have his chosen foothold give way in the surprisingly soft soil and send him tumbling backwards.

Luz fell on his back on the hill, barrelled over himself and rolled over on his side. He felt himself slamming into and through a wall of greenery with branches scratching him and leaves slapping him in the face, before he landed on his back on the ground, the wind knocked out of him.

Maybe five feet away from him lay Speirs and Lipton on the grass under a tough-looking old oak tree by a clear bubbly mountain stream. They were both only half-dressed like they had been on the field but looking indecent instead of casual when Lipton was lying on his back with Speirs on top of him, pressed so close to each other that they must have been at least embracing before Luz came tumbling through the bushes and crashed in the middle of their private moment. 

For one frozen, terrifying, incriminating moment they all just stared at each other. 

Then some idiotic instinct in Luz activated, came to life and kicked him to act. He saluted and said the first thing that came to mind: “Afternoon, sirs. I have a complaint about our potato rations.”

Speirs didn’t even blink at him, but Lipton found his voice and that voice was angry. He untangled one of his arms from around Speirs’ shoulders and pointed an angry finger at Luz.

“No!” he snapped like scolding a dog. “No! Not today, not again! You or anyone else is not ruining this! We’re on leave for Christ’s sake!”

“We really are kind of in the middle of something here,” Speirs pointed out in an uncannily calm voice while gesturing vaguely down at himself and how he was straddling Lipton’s hips. 

Despite being on his back on the ground, Lipton managed to both look and sound imperative and dead serious when he looked up to Speirs. “And you, you are not running away either!”

Speirs peered down at him, his brows politely raised. “I’ve never ran away. All I’ve done is protect you.”

“Well you stop it now,” Lipton snapped and whipped his head towards Luz again, who was still lying on the ground on his back with his hand rigid against his forehead. “And you will piss off, right now! I don’t care what the hell you were or are thinking, but you will remove yourself from this area immediately, piss off and shut up!”

“I – uh – “ Luz didn’t mean to hesitate. If anything the permission to leave the situation and shut up about it was exactly what he craved, but it was still difficult to breathe and he couldn’t quite find his feet.

But Lipton couldn’t know that, and flushed with both anger and something else Luz outright refused to name, he kept barking with his very familiar sergeant voice that made the situation feel even more improper: “It’s been a very long year, a difficult four months, and extremely frustrating five weeks, and no one – _no one_ – is taking this weekend from me! I don’t care if you tell on us or report us both to the MPs once we get down from this _damn_ mountain, but you will let me have this one _goddamn_ afternoon, understood!?”

“Yes, sir!” Luz answered reflexively and hurried to scramble up on his feet before he would have to hear anything more. Tearing his eyes away from the sight of his very good friend under his CO felt like snapping out of a paralysis, and he used his newly found mobility to escape. 

“He won’t report us,” Luz heard Speirs assuring Lipton in a gentle voice when he hurried through the bushes, then raising his voice so that Luz would definitely catch it too and added: “He won’t make it back down to Kaprun if he’s planning to!” 

“I won’t report!” Luz yelled behind him while climbing the slope towards the trail. “It’s none of my business! Have fun with your paperwork!” 

When he reached the trail he bolted into run and didn’t stop before he was back in civilization. He was out of breath and sweating through his shirt when he made it back to the lodges and the open field. 

The first thing he did was to go straight to the building that had a water tap outside, put his head under it and let the ice-cold well water spray away every single thought from his head. 

By the time his ears were numb and he screwed the valve shut again, he was no longer standing alone by the lodge. Perconte had made his way to him and was leaning his side against the wall, waiting for Luz to have drowned himself enough with a smirk on his face.

“Well? What did you see?” he asked, mock-casual.

Luz avoided his gaze. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I think I’ve had too much sun, that’s all,” he said while combing his wet hair off his face.

Perconte chuckled, his smirk never fading. “I see you’ve got it, then.” He paused thoughtfully for a moment, then added: “Or I suppose it’s Lip who’s finally getting it, don’t you think?”

Luz got his revenge by unscrewing the valve again and spraying Perconte with the cold water.


End file.
